Piracy In Developing Countries Driven By High Prices 235
langelgjm writes "The Social Science Research Council, an independent, non-profit organization, today released a major report on music, film and software piracy in developing economies. It's a product of three years of work, and the authors conclude that piracy is primarily driven by excessively high prices and that anti-piracy education and enforcement efforts have failed. Still, chief editor Joe Karaganis believes that businesses can survive in these high piracy environments. The report is free to readers in low-income countries, but behind a paywall for certain high-income countries, although the SSRC notes, 'For those who must have it for free anyway, you probably know where to look.'"
LOL (Score:5, Insightful)
NO SHIT? Someone has been reading my posts on slashdot? THIS is what I've been saying for YEARS, good God! Just look at my rant posts, I must have said that about 5 times at least.
I'm NOT paying half my monthly salary for a PS3 or XBOX game. Same way as I'm not paying $10-$20 for a movie ticket. That's why movie tickets in my country cost $3-$5 and people go to the movies, while very few don't pirate games. Charge me something I can pay, and I gladly will. Be a jerk and try to charge me twice or 4x as much as the US price and I won't buy it (PS3/XBOX 360 cost USD 800 here. Taxes are not the reason). For me a $100 game is like expecting the average american to pay $500 for a PS3 game. Ain't gonna happen.
Re:Well no shit (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Obvious much? (Score:5, Insightful)
missed the point (Score:5, Insightful)
The point is to generate high piracy rates, in order to generate the PR necessary to give pet legislators an excuse to do their "friends" a favor by passing yet more draconian legislation, allowing heavier and heavier locks, they hope defeating fair-use activities such as time shifting, format shifting and unlicensed commentary.
The organizations crying over the exploding piracy figures know full well the real score.
Re:Well no shit [Double Standards] (Score:4, Insightful)
Having discount prices for 3rd-world countries can create a double standard when it comes to labor outsourcing. We have to compete with 3rd-world labor at their labor rates, not ours, yet they want discounts on software. You can't have it both ways, otherwise we are giving our jobs away as a charity.
If they have local adjustments for prices, then we should get local adjustments on wages because our housing and medical costs are far higher than theirs.
Re:Well no shit [Double Standards] (Score:2, Insightful)
What the fuck are you talking about. They (the "third world") get paid by their local standards, and thus can't afford to drop 60 bucks for an xbox game worth a few hours of entertainment. Your post makes no sense at all.